Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everyWe & thing & give a honest account of the same to you.

Receipt – proof of payment

I rate all the food items & then give a final overall rating which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster.

Description –

This is a takeaway joint that we came to know about from friends discussing it on facebook. Sounded interesting & hence decided to give it a try.

Called to order all 3 items that they make – biryani, Galouti Kabab with ulte tawa ke parathe, korma. Biryani & korma r available in both mutton & chicken – we ordered mutton for both.

Asked the guy on the phone ‘If we come to pick the food from ur shop, how much time will u take to keep the food ready?’ answer –’40 minutes’. We said ‘How much time will it take for u to deliver to our home?’. Answer was ’40 minutes’. What????? Is the delivery boy Goopy Gaine, Bagha baine of ‘Hirok Rajar Deshey’ – A kids movie by Satyajit Ray in which these two people cud clap their shoes & spell the destination & instantly get ransported to that location……

I was wondering about the name of the restaurant – Is it after some person in the family of the owner or the Great Sufi poet Rumi whose verses r still sung 800 years after he composed them. Needless to say, all the 3 food items mentioned above came into existance centuries after Rumi died.

We started our lunch with Kabab parathe. This is a local lingo in Lucknow to describe Galouti / Galawati kabab with ulte tawa ke parathe.

Kabab parathe

The ulte tawa ke parathe had no salt in them – so cud not enjoy as it is. It was enormously soft & had superb texture. Went well with the kababs. Rate it 3/5.

ulte tawa ke parathe

The Galouti kababs were exactly the way they shud have been, in terms of texture. I cud not pick them up with my fingers. They were so soft that they were falling off. The taste was intense, robust & rustic as well. The afteraste was even more high pitch & dramatic. The spices cud get a string of sweat droplets on the forehead. These kababs tasted very good as well. Rate them 4.5/5.

Galouti kababs

Next dish we had was mutton biryani. As soon as I opened the box and started clicking, I noticed that the rice morsels were not plain. They were a bit lumpy and bumpy (see pic). Made me think that rice is not cooked penultimately.

mutton biryani

A spoonful of rice in the mouth confirmed. The rice was almost 90% + cooked but did not reach its peak (beyond which rice starts breaking / melting off). A top notch biryani ‘melts in the mouth’ at the first bite. That did not happen. This was not hard at all, it was soft enough not to b repulsive but it was not ideal as well. Rate texture of rice 2.5/5.

mutton biryani

The taste of rice was marvellous. It was so good that it cud compete with Royal , Arsalan etc Biryani specialists of Kolkata. Perfectly spiced & seasoned, the taste of rice was beyond expectation. Rate the taste of rice 4.75/5.

Mutton pieces were soft & nice but in both eateries mentioned above, the meat is way tender than what it was at Rumi. Infact in most Lucknow Biryanis that r made cooked rice & meat together, the meat is way softer. Taste of meat was good. Rate the meat 3/5.

mutton biryani

Flavor of the biryani was good but not as aromatic as it cud b. Usually when a good Lucknowi Biryani is served, an aroma spreads in the room. The same did not happen here. However the flavors were good. Rate flavor of Biryani 3/5.

Overall rating of biryani averages out to 3.3/5

Last dish was Mutton Korma. This had a very good gravy – It was immensely flavorful and tasty. The gravy was not very thick but managed to really impress my tastebuds. Drank a lot of gravy just like that towards the end. Rate the gravy 4.5/5.

Mutton Korma

Meat pieces were soft & very good to taste. Rate them 3/5.

Overall rating of this dish averages out to 3.75/5.

Overall rating of food at Rumi’s kitchen averages out to 3.65/5. Surely worth a retry.